What Is An Explanatory Video?

An explanatory video is a short animated video that delivers a business idea in a simple, engaging and direct way. It combines a clear and compact language, with attractive imagery and impressive animations so as to quickly capture the audience’s attention. It works as an informational and educational resource at the same time: in no more than 90 seconds, it explains the main business of the company, how it’s going to solve the main problem the customer has, and explain why that product/service is a great alternative to satisfy their needs.

Check out this delightful video and enjoy…

What Is An Explanatory Video? Solved! Get To Know Their Main Characteristics

Now the concept around explanatory videos is clear! So it’s time to move forward and dive into their main characteristics. What makes this video type SO special?

Briefness: animated explainer videos communicate a specific business idea in just a few seconds (remember that, like we mentioned, they shouldn’t last more than 90 seconds, ideally). Take a few minutes to read these key tips on the specific length animated explainer videos should have.

Simplicity: these videos are meant to deliver a simple and succinct message by sticking to the classical narrative structure: they begin with the “what”, continue with the “how”, and end with the “why”.

Focused: animated marketing videos focus specifically on the target audience´s needs and their problems. This way, the chances that they feel highly identificated with the proposal rise dramatically.

Animated characters: these videos feature cute animated characters to bring to the video an extra dose of humor, charm and personality.

Branding: explainer videos are generally branded with the colors of the company’s identity. This is a must to generate brand awareness!

This is a good example of how these characteristics have been applied:

Explanatory Videos: 8 Key Benefits

Now you’re totally in the mood for what an explanatory video is. Yes, I know…you might have seen many of these on the web. But what could be better than truly understanding their main main features and benefits so that you can develop your own? 🙂

Let’s analyze then how these cool videos can help you enhance your marketing strategy. What makes them so unique and, ultimately, effective? Check out 8 key benefits animated videos offer.

Your business idea…in the blink of an eye!: (well…yes…this could be an exaggeration, but keep on reading and understand what we mean, lol) By using an animated marketing video you can communicate what you do, how your product works and why it’s the best option in your niche…in less than 90 seconds!

Visual and verbal learning: these videos implicate both visual and auditory senses and this boosts their communicational power. In other words, animated videos have a strong influence on the human brain. Check out these 5 neuroscience concepts you can apply to explainer videos. to get our point 😉

Great online visibility: embedding an animated explainer video in your website can help you gain great online visibility. In which way? Well, if you do so, visitors will feel captivated and will stay longer. This is highly appreciated by Google and the rest of the search engines (they understand that your content is valuable for the people and consequently will rank your site higher in the queries). Moreover, by developing a video you can have presence on YouTube, one of the most important social networks on the net, with over a billion users all around the world.

Brand awareness: these videos are totally customizable. And if you apply the colors of your brand’s identity in the backgrounds and landscapes of the video, it will be of great help to enhance brand awareness and recognition.

Encourage your audience to take action: it’s really simple to add a Call To Action to your explanatory video in order to guide your viewers in the direction you want (completing a form, downloading an eBook, subscribing to your email list, or anything else).

Boost conversions: if you embed an animated video above the fold in your home page you can raise conversions by 20% on average. Not bad, right? 🙂

Grow shareability: videos are, without a doubt, one of the best formats to be shared on social media platforms. People love consuming entertaining, appealing and informative content and sharing it with their peers!

Fit with the mobile logic: going mobile is no longer an option. It’s a must! Just consider the huge rise mobile video views have had and how they will continue growing in the upcoming years. Guess what? Explainer videos adapt perfectly to this scenario: they are totally mobile-friendly!

This is not a minor detail at all. You know what an explainer video is, and how it can enhance your inbound marketing strategy. But how can you leverage their huge engaging power to attract, persuade, gain and retain customers?

First of all, let´s make sure we are standing on the same page. Watch this brief tutorial so that you can understand the basic concept of inbound marketing:

So: basically, the buyer’s journey is the active process your prospects pass through before making their final decision (purchase). It’s also widely known as a “sales funnel” and it’s made up of 3 key stages:

Awareness: the prospect knows that he has a problem but he still has to put it into context and understand it from within.

Consideration: the prospect starts to do some research to analyze the different alternatives in the market that are capable of helping him with a suitable solution.

Decision: the prospect now understands what the best solution is. At this stage, he’s compiling all the vendors / products available that can offer him a true solution. He´s now focused on shortening this list to the minimum before he makes the final choice.

You might be asking yourself: “where should I use an explanatory video?” Typically, these videos are used in the consideration stage of the sales funnel. Indeed, at this specific stage the prospect is totally aware that he has a problem and is looking for the best methods / means to solve it. He is totally open to listening to your proposal and learning more about your product and its specific advantages (remember that he’s making a comparison among different alternatives).

With this in mind, these videos are a great tool to educate your leads and nurture them with valuable information that helps them make a decision. By producing a cool, engaging, and compelling video, you can dramatically increase your chances of being considered as a really good vendor and gain a special place over the competition.

Bonus Track: The Importance Of Customization

You want to get the best results out of your marketing video, right? Then make it fully custom! There is no easy way out: develop a video that perfectly adapts to your target audience’s characteristics, expectations and needs and you will see great marketing results.

Check out how this video we made for Gigtown has been adapted to their specific target audience’s peculiarities:

So, these are just 3 big advantages of fully customizing your marketing video:

Stand out from competitors: by customizing your video you can gain a special place in your target audience’s hearts and minds. If you don’t, you will be “just one more” in “whatever-your-niche-is”. Awful!

Trigger a strong connection: if you customize your video you will set up a strong emotional connection with your audience and will generate an identity towards the story you’re telling. They will make them feel that you truly know what their problem is and that you truly know how to help them.

Improve your ROI: if you focus your marketing video on your target audience, they will feel captivated by it and will spend more time watching. This way, you will have more time to deliver your key messages, while you also grow trust and confidence towards your brand. As a result, this will generate a rise in your conversions and sales.

At Yum Yum Videos, customizing every single video we make for our clients is a must. And this is independently from the industry they operate in, the product they sell and the target audience they want to approach. We think it’s really important to make a video highly enjoyable, interesting and captivating for those specific viewers – and this is only possible through customization.

Would you like to learn more about how we work? Feel free to drop us a line! And don’t miss this video which briefly summarizes our approach to explainer video marketing.

Summary

Say goodbye to questions like: “what is an explanatory video?” “which advantages do they have?” “how can they enhance my marketing strategy”? After reading this post you’ve got all the information you need to start working on your next animated marketing video, and do it the right way. We have shared with you some of the most essential tips when it comes to developing a super stunning marketing video!